Method and system for providing calling number restoral

ABSTRACT

A system and method for restoring the original calling number in a call routed through an out-of-network enhanced service provider to a forwarding destination. The system comprises a service control point, a service switching point in communication with the service control point, and an enhanced service provider service node in communication with the service switching point, wherein the service node is located outside of a network while the remaining components reside within the network, and wherein the service switching point is provisioned with two triggers: an incoming trigger for calls to the service node and an outgoing trigger for calls from the service node. According to the method, the service control point, in response to the incoming trigger, removes and stores the private call information of a call exiting the network and, in response to the outgoing trigger, restores that private call information to the call once the call re-enters the network.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/642,403, filed Aug. 13, 2003 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,664,244), which isa continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/468,888, filed Dec. 22,1999 (Now U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,633) the entireties of which are hereinincorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of switched telephony, andmore particularly, to a method and system for providing a telephonerouting service that restores a calling number in a call that has beenprocessed by a non-network service provider and rerouted to an alternatedestination.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many Advanced Intelligence Network (AIN) telephone services use thecapabilities of a service node (also referred to as a service circuitnode) for intelligent call routing. In a typical routing scheme, theservice node (SN) accepts an incoming call, executes service-relatedlogic, places an outgoing call in accordance with the service logic, andterminates the incoming call to the outgoing call to complete theconnection. Usually, the destination of the outgoing call is a telephonenumber different from the original called number.

AIN networks use a complex, high speed, high traffic volume datapacket-switched messaging system to provide versatility in the handlingof telephone calls. The Advanced Intelligent Network System is describedin U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,701,301 and 5,838,774, which are hereby incorporatedby reference in their entirety.

The AIN enables telecommunications call control and database access fromany computer or switching system connected to the Signaling System 7(SS7) network. The Signaling System 7 network refers to the currentimplementation of the common channeling interoffice signaling controlnetwork used in the United States. The Advanced Intelligent Network(AIN) is a standard call control protocol that uses the SS7 network formessage transport.

AIN infrastructures of the public switched telephone network includeservice switching points (SSPs), service nodes, signaling transferpoints (STPs), and service control points (SCPs) with databases. Theservice control point is a computer that holds, accesses, and maintainsone or more databases, performs service logic, and communicates withservice switching points in directing call routing. Databases typicallystore subscriber-specific information used by the network to routecalls. The service switching point communicates with the service controlpoint and queries the service control point for subscriber-specific ornetwork-specific instructions as to how calls should be completed. Thesignaling transfer point is a packet switch that shuttles signalingmessages between AIN network elements. The service node is a computersystem that can perform service logic, can communicate with parties viavoice circuits, and can assess incoming call information and makeappropriate connections. In most implementations of a public switchedtelephone network, service control points and service switching pointsare provided in redundant mated pairs to ensure network reliability.Also, typically, service control points are within a network, whileservice nodes typically can be within or outside of a network.

Much of the intelligence and the basis for many of the new enhancedfeatures of the network reside in the local service control point. Asknown by those skilled in the art, service control points are physicallyimplemented by relatively powerful fault tolerant computers. Typicalimplementation devices include the Star Server FT Model 3200 and theStar Server FT Model 3300, both available from Lucent Technologies™. Thearchitecture of these computers is based on Tandem Integrity S2 andIntegrity S1 platforms, respectively.

The service control points maintain the network databases used inproviding custom services, such as databases that identify customersrequiring particular services. To keep the processing of data and callsas simple and as generic as possible at switches, triggers are definedat the switches for each call. Triggers may be assigned to a particularsubscriber line or call, and prompts a query to a service control point.The service control point then checks its database to determine how toroute the call and whether a customized calling feature or customservice should be implemented for this particular call. The results ofthe data base inquiry are sent back to the switch from the servicecontrol point. The return message includes instructions to the switch asto how to process the call. The instruction may be to take some specialaction as a result of a customized calling service or custom feature. Ifa “continue” message is received at the switch from the service controlpoint, the switch moves through its call states, selects the calldigits, and may generate further messages that will be used to set upand route the call, as described above.

FIG. 1 illustrates a typical AIN architecture that uses the callprocessing, routing, and connection capabilities of a service node toprovide a call forwarding service. For a typical terminating service,caller 100 places a call (call 1) to a subscriber's telephone number,which flows through the caller's service switching point 102 and hits atrigger on the subscriber's service switching point 104. The triggerinitiates a query (query 1) to a service control point 112 through asignaling transfer point 110. In response to query 1, service controlpoint 112 returns response 1, directing service switching point 104 toforward call 1 to service node 116 that provides the call forwardingprocessing. Service switching point 104 forwards call 1 to service node116 through service switching point 106. When it receives incoming call1, service node 116 identifies the subscriber by the called number ofcall 1 and looks up the subscriber's desired forwarding, destination ina database. Service node 116 then places an outgoing call (call 2) tothat forwarding destination (through service switching points 106 and108) and, when answered at the subscriber's forwarding destination 118,terminates the incoming call 1 to the outgoing call 2 to complete thecall connection.

Because, according to current network signaling capabilities, servicenode 116 places outgoing call 2 to complete the connection, the callingnumber of outgoing call 2 is the telephone number associated with thetrunk group of service node 116. Thus, to the subscriber's forwardingdestination 118, call 2 appears to originate from service node 116,instead of caller 100. This drawback of the service node functionnegates telephone services and call processing functions that may needto know the identity of the caller, such as caller identification(“caller ID”).

This drawback is further compounded when service node 116 is outside alocal exchange carrier's local access transport area (LATA—hereinafterreferred to as “the network”) and call 1 contains private callinformation. In such a situation, the local exchange carrier isprohibited by federal regulation to forward private call information toservice node 116. Thus, a local exchange carrier cannot manipulatedialing strings to pass the private call information through servicenode 116 to subscriber's forwarding destination 118. This additionaldrawback is quite significant when considering the large number oftelephone services supported by non-LEC telephone service providers,which are typically referred to as enhanced service providers (ESPs).

Supported by an out-of-network service node, an enhanced serviceprovider, also known as an information provider, is an unregulated (bythe Federal Communications Commission) vendor that adds value totelephone lines using software and hardware external to the network of alocal exchange carrier. The enhanced service provider supplements alocal exchange carrier's standard offerings, supporting advanced callfeatures such as voicemail, flexible call forwarding, single numberservice, call screening service (e.g., routing or blocking telephonecalls based on the calling party), announcement service, or databaseprocessing (e.g., a database that provides the latest airline fares).These enhanced services are offered over common carrier transmissionfacilities used in interstate communications, which employ computerprocessing applications that act on the format, content, code, protocolor similar aspects of the subscriber's transmitted information; providethe subscriber additional, different or restructured information; orinvolve subscriber interaction with stored information. In other words,these enhanced services are computer processing applications thatmanipulate in some way the information transmitted over the telephonelines.

For example, with a flexible call forwarding telephone service, aservice node receives from a calling party an incoming call to thecalled party (subscriber). In response, the service node determines theforwarding destination, determines how to route the call (including, forexample, which outgoing port to use), sets up appropriate billing andcall identity information, places an outgoing call to the forwardingdestination, connects the incoming call to the outgoing call, and dropsout to leave the calls connected at the service switching point to savethe resources of the service node.

For single number service, a service node receives an incoming call,consults a database to determine a group of phone numbers tosimultaneously ring, places outgoing calls to each phone number in thegroup, and connects the incoming call to the outgoing call that is firstanswered. Like flexible call forwarding, once the incoming and outgoingcalls are connected, the service node drops out resulting in a singlecall via the public switched telephone network.

To execute these services, a call to a subscriber of an enhanced serviceis redirected from the subscriber's telephone number to a service nodein communication with the enhanced service provider, and once theservice node completes the call processing, to an alternate destinationdictated by the enhanced service. As described above, because a servicenode completes the connection to the forwarding destination, theoriginal calling number of the caller is replaced by the service nodenumber. Further, because the service node in communication with theenhanced service provider is outside of the local exchange carrier'snetwork and because the enhanced service provider is unregulated, thelocal exchange carrier cannot forward private call information to theenhanced service provider for insertion into the outgoing call from theservice node to the forwarding destination.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a system and method for restoring the originalcalling number in a call routed through an out-of-network enhancedservice provider to a forwarding destination. The system comprises aservice control point, a service switching point in communication withthe service control point, and a service node of an enhanced serviceprovider in communication with the service switching point. For purposesof the present invention, the service node is located outside of a localexchange carrier's network while the remaining components reside withinthe network. Further, the service switching point is provisioned withtwo triggers: an incoming trigger for calls to the service node and anoutgoing trigger for calls from the service node.

According to the method of the present invention, a call to the servicenode hits the incoming trigger, prompting the service switching point tosend the call information to the service control point. The servicecontrol point records the call information in a database, removes allprivate call information (e.g., calling party number if the call is froma private number), and sends the remaining call information with thecall to the service switching point for forwarding to the service nodeoutside of the network. After processing the call using the remainingcall information, the service node places an outgoing call in accordancewith the enhanced service that it is providing. This outgoing callenters the network and hits the outgoing trigger at the service node'sservice switching point, prompting that service switching point to querythe service control point for call information and routing instructions.The service control point retrieves the private call information itpreviously recorded (in response to the incoming trigger), rearrangesthe call information of the outgoing call to include the private callinformation, and returns the call information and routing instructionsto the service switching point. Accordingly, the service switching pointforwards the outgoing call to the forwarding destination, which now canaccess the private information (e.g., the originating number of thecall).

Broadly stated, the present invention removes and stores the privatecall information of a call exiting the network and restores that privatecall information to the call once the call re-enters the network. To thebenefit of call processing downstream of the present invention, the callcontains the same call information with which it originated and appearsas if it was never screened to flow outside the network. Thus, thesystem and method of the present invention enable a local exchangecarrier to provide enhanced services from outside the network, topreserve the integrity of private call information, and to restore theprivate call information so as not to adversely impact subsequentlyprovided services. The net result is an increase in the number, quality,and scope of telecommunications services enhanced service providers canprovide to consumers and, consequently, an increase in subscribershipand profits for the local exchange carrier, all while maintainingcompliance with federal regulations.

A further advantage of the present invention is its applicability to anyout-of-network enhanced service. Thus, a local exchange carrier canpackage the present invention as a tariff and offer it publicly to allenhanced service providers. (A tariff is a public document filed by acommon carrier, regulated telephone company, which details the features,equipment, and pricing of a service provided by the telephone company,or local exchange carrier.) With the tariff, the local exchange carriercan provide the service both to affiliated and non-affiliated enhancedservice providers and can collect the corresponding fees. Packaging thepresent invention as a tariff and offering it to a large number ofcustomers generates increased profits for the local exchange carrier.

Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to protect theintegrity of private call information and to support multiple concurrentenhanced service processes without being restricted by limited memory.The service node provides this expanded memory capability, especiallywhen compared to the limited memory capacity of other AIN componentssuch as service switching points.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide anout-of-network enhanced service without compromising the effectivenessof subsequently provided telephone services, e.g., caller ID service.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a system andmethod for restoring the calling number in a call that has been routedoutside of a local exchange carrier's network for processing by anenhanced service provider and rerouting to a forwarding destination.

It is another object of the present invention to remove private callinformation from a call exiting the network and to restore that privatecall information to the call when it reenters the network.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a callingnumber restoral service that can be offered as a tariff package to allenhanced service providers to increase the profits of a local exchangecarrier.

These and other objects of the present invention are described ingreater detail in the detailed description of the invention, theappended drawings, and the attached claims.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art system architecture thatuses a service node to complete call routing and termination.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the system architecture of the presentinvention, shown in the context of a call forwarding service.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart tracing the steps of the call flow of FIG. 2,described in the context of a call forwarding service.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIG. 2, the primary components of the present invention area service switching point 200 provisioned with an incoming trigger 202and an outgoing trigger 204, a service node 206 in communication withservice switching point 200, and a service control point 208 incommunication with service switching point 200 through a signalingtransfer point 210. To provide a complete call flow architecture, thepresent description further includes a caller 212 in communication witha caller's service switching point 214, a subscriber 216 incommunication with a subscriber's service switching point 218, and aforwarding destination 220 in communication with a forwarding serviceswitching point 222. Caller's service switching point 214 is incommunication with subscriber's service switching point 218 and, throughsignaling transfer point 210, with service control point 208. Forwardingservice switching point 222 is in communication with service switchingpoint 200.

As contemplated by the present invention, service node 206 is outsidethe local exchange carrier's network and, as such, may not receiveprivate call information. To comply with this federal regulation, thepresent invention uses incoming trigger 202 to remove and store theprivate information before the call leaves the network to go to servicenode 206, and restores the private call information to the call when thecall hits outgoing call 204 on its way back into the network.

System Architecture

The present invention is based on a service node-type architecture andcan be applied to any enhanced service that requires a service node orsimilar device for call routing or processing. As used in thespecification and in the claims, service nodes include all similardevices that perform the functions described herein including, forexample, personal computers with integrated services digital networkbasic rate interfaces. FIG. 2 illustrates an architecture representativeof the present invention.

Although FIG. 2 depicts a separate service switching point for eachsubscriber number and service node, one skilled in the art wouldunderstand that each component could be connected to the same serviceswitching point. Further, the service node could be connected to one ormore service switching points. In addition, although FIG. 2 shows oneservice node providing the enhanced service, one or more service nodeswith one or more enhanced services could provide several out-of-networkenhanced call processing services.

Turning to the individual components, service node 206 is associatedwith an enhanced service provider that is outside the local exchangecarrier's network, the boundary of which is represented by the dottedline 228 in FIG. 2. The enhanced service provider could be any callprocessing service that supplements a local exchange carrier's availablecall plan, such as voicemail or single number service.

Service switching point 200, with its incoming trigger 202 and outgoingtrigger 204, acts as a gatekeeper within the network, preventing privatecall information from exiting the network. Upon receiving a call toservice node 206, incoming trigger 202 queries service control point 208to remove and store private call information. Once service node 206 hascompleted call processing and has placed an outgoing call, outgoingtrigger 204 queries service control point 208 to restore the privatecall information.

Service control point 208 receives queries from subscriber's serviceswitching point 218 and service switching point 200. In response,service control point 208 determines the services applicable to eachcall and issues corresponding call routing instructions to the serviceswitching points. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention,service control point 208 is provisioned with a service packageapplication (SPA) 224 and a database 226. Service package application224 is a computer program that directs the actions of service controlpoint 208 to provide the functions of the present invention. Database226 is an organized and structured data collection in which servicecontrol point 208 stores call information. Preferably, the callinformation includes call data such as the calling number, the callednumber, the privacy indicator of the calling number, and a transactionidentification.

Caller 212 and subscriber 216 are any telephony devices, e.g.,telephones or facsimile equipment that are capable of initiating andreceiving telephone calls. In the context of the present invention,subscriber 216 does not receive a telephone call because the triggerprovisioned on subscriber's service switching point 218 redirects thecalls to service node 206.

Finally, subscriber's forwarding destination 220 is any destination thatmay need to know the calling party information, i.e., the telephonenumber of caller 212. Subscriber's forwarding destination 220 could be atelephony device or, perhaps, another call service that furtherprocesses the call. However, to provide a simple illustration of thepresent invention, the preferred embodiment of subscriber's forwardingdestination 220 is a standard telephone with a caller ID display. Thus,in this preferred embodiment, for the caller ID service to operateproperly, the subscriber's forwarding destination 220 must receive thecalling party information and the associated privacy indicator, so thatthe caller ID display shows the telephone number of caller 212 if thecall is not private, “private” if the call is private, or “unavailable”if the originating or intermediate network is unable to deliver thecalling party information (e.g., if the call originates from PrivateBranch Exchange equipment or from within a network that does not supportSS7 signaling).

System Operation

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate the call flow of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. FIG. 2 is schematic of the system architectureshowing calls, queries, and responses between the system components.(Although the queries and responses are not shown between the signalingtransfer point 210 and service control point 206 for clarity, oneskilled in the art would understand that the queries reach servicecontrol point 208 via signaling transfer point 210 and that theresponses originate from service control point 208 and flow throughsignaling transfer point 210.) FIG. 3 is a flowchart that corresponds toFIG. 2 and summarizes the steps of the method of the present invention.Although the present invention is applicable to any situation in whichan out-of-network service node processes a call, the schematic of FIG. 2and the flowchart of FIG. 3 trace the operation of the present inventionin the context of call forwarding. While the method described herein andillustrated in the figures contains many specific examples of call flowsteps, these steps should not be construed as limitations on the scopeof the invention, but rather as examples of call flow steps that couldbe used to practice the invention. As would be apparent to one ofordinary skill in the art, many other variations on the system operationare possible, including differently grouped and ordered method steps.Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be determined not by theembodiments illustrated, but by the appended claims and theirequivalents.

As FIG. 3 shows, in step 300 caller 212 dials the telephone number ofsubscriber 216. In step 302, this incoming call (call 1 in FIG. 2) flowsfrom caller's service switching point 214 to subscriber's serviceswitching point 218.

In step 304, incoming call 1 activates a service trigger provisioned onsubscriber's service switching point 218. Preferably, this servicetrigger is a termination attempt trigger, although other types oftriggers could be used (e.g., Public Office Dialing Plan triggers). Thetermination attempt trigger initiates a query to service control point208 to implement the particular service to which the called party hassubscribed, e.g., simultaneous ring service, and is provisioned onsubscriber's service switching point 218 during initiation of thatservice.

In step 306, subscriber's service switching point 218 sends a query(query 1 in FIG. 2) via signaling transfer point 210 to service controlpoint 208 asking for routing instructions. In step 308, service controlpoint 208 looks up the subscriber's calling plan to determine thesubscriber's enhanced service and directs subscriber's service switchingpoint 218 to route call 1 to service node 206 of the enhanced service(response 1 in FIG. 2). Following the directions of service controlpoint 208, subscriber's service switching point 218 processes theincoming call 1 with service switching point 200 in step 310.

In step 312, the incoming call 1 hits incoming trigger 202 provisionedon service switching point 200. Preferably, incoming trigger 202 is atermination attempt trigger or similar trigger that activates for allcalls destined for service node 206. Activating incoming trigger 202sends a query (query 2 in FIG. 2) to service control point 208 thatincludes the call information of the incoming call 1. In the preferredembodiment of the present invention, the call information includes datasuch as the calling number, the called number, the privacy indicator,and the destination number (the telephone number associated with thetrunk group of service node 206). The calling number and the privacyindicator are the private information, which may not be transmittedoutside the network by the telephone company.

In step 314, service control point 208 stores the call information in adatabase table in database 226. In addition, service control point 208generates a transaction identification for the incoming call 1 andenters the transaction identification in the table entry with the restof the call information. This transaction identification marks thedatabase location at which the private information related to call 1 isstored while call 1 flows outside the network. Additionally, thetransaction identification may be used to provide service to a specificcaller without revealing the caller's identity. In the preferredembodiment of the present invention, the transaction identification is aseries of digits long enough to distinguish between the multiple callsbeing concurrently processed by service control point 208. For example,the transaction identification could be digits of the year, month, day,hour, minute, and second, followed by a string of random digits.

Optionally, the transaction identification could encode the identity ofa caller so that the present invention could provide an enhanced servicewithout revealing the identity of the caller to the enhanced serviceprovider (in compliance with regulations). For example, with anannouncement service that plays one message to friends and anothermessage to business associates, the encoded transaction identificationwould mark the caller as either a friend or business associate so thatthe enhanced service provider could play the appropriate message.

In step 316, service control point 208 replaces the original callingnumber in the call 1 call information with the transactionidentification, removes the privacy indicator, and instructs serviceswitching point 200 to terminate call 1 with the modified callinformation to service node 206. Thus, for example, the call 1 callinformation“callingnumber,callednumber,privacyindicator,destinationnumbe-r” wouldbe modified to “transID,callednumber,destinationnumber”, where thedestination number is the telephone access number for service node 206.As a result of replacing the calling number in the call information withthe transaction identification, service switching point 200 will includethe transaction identification in the appropriate calling number field,depending upon the type of interface between the service switching point200 and service node 206. For example, with an integrated servicesdigital network basic rate interface (ISDN/BRI), service switching point200 could include the transaction identification as part of the callsetup signaling. As another example, even with a regular analoginterface, service switching point 200 could include the transactionidentification using touch tones generated by service switching point200 over the interface. Alternatively, in addition to the calling numberfield, the transaction identification could be placed in other datafields of the signaling message.

Instead of including the full transaction identification in the callinformation, an alternate embodiment of the present invention uses anabbreviated form of the transaction identification, referred to as atransaction key. The transaction key is an excerpt of the transactionidentification that contains enough digits so as to correspond to onlythe one transaction identification without being mistakenly matched toanother transaction identification. This abbreviated form accommodatessignaling interfaces between service switching point 200 and servicenode 206 that can only handle a limited number of characters.

Following the instructions of service control point 208, serviceswitching point 200, to which the enhanced service provider isconnected, terminates the call to service node 206 in step 318. In step320, service node 206 completes the call processing associated with theenhanced service, determines the corresponding forwarding destination,and places an outgoing call (call 2 in FIG. 2) to that forwardingdestination. Preferably, the dialing string for outgoing call 2 beginswith a customized dialing plan code, e.g., 9, so that when the callreaches service switching point 200 it triggers a query to the servicecontrol point 208. In this embodiment, the outgoing trigger ispreferably a customized dialing plan trigger. As an example, this callinformation could be “9,transID,forwardingdestinationnumber,#”, wherethe forwarding destination number is determined by service node 206based on the subscriber's enhanced service, and the “#” characterdelimits the end of the dialing string. Alternatively, outgoing trigger204 could be a feature code trigger. In this embodiment, the dialingstring begins with the feature code, e.g., *9.

In step 322, outgoing call 2 hits an outgoing trigger 204 provisioned onservice switching point 200, sending a query (query 3 in FIG. 2) toservice control point 208. Query 3 includes the forwarding destinationnumber (as dictated by the call processing of the enhanced serviceprovider) and the transaction identification, as received from servicecontrol point 208 in step 316. Alternatively, instead of the fulltransaction identification, query 3 may include a transaction key if atransaction key was delivered in step 316.

Noting the transaction identification, in step 324, service controlpoint 208 looks up the corresponding table entry, retrieves the callingparty number and privacy indicator from the table entry in database 226,and modifies the call information of the outgoing call to include thecalling party number and privacy indicator. Thus, the call informationis changed from “*9,transID,forwardingdestinationnumber” to“originalcallingnumber,privacyindicatorforwardingdestinationnumber”.Service control point 208 returns the call information to serviceswitching point 200 with routing instructions directing the serviceswitching point 200 to forward outgoing call 2 to the subscriber'sforwarding destination 220.

Finally, in step 326, service switching point 200 sends outgoing call 2to subscriber's forwarding destination 220 through service switchingpoint 222. In this embodiment, subscriber's forwarding destination 220is equipped with a caller ID service, which can read from the callinformation the calling party number and privacy indicator that wererestored by service control point 208. Thus, the caller ID display atsubscriber's forwarding destination 220 displays the calling number ifthe privacy indicator is off, displays “private” if the privacyindicator is on, or “unavailable” if the originating or intermediatenetwork is unable to deliver the calling party information. Afterviewing the caller ID display, if the subscriber answers the telephone,service node 206 terminates call 1 to call 2 to complete the callconnection, and drops out of the call. Thus, only the caller and thesubscriber's forwarding destination are on the line, freeing servicenode 116's resources for future calls.

In addition to the caller ID service illustrated above, other callservices may need to know the calling number and the privacy indicatorto operate properly. To meet these services' needs, in the preferredembodiment of the present invention, service control point 208 directsservice switching point 200 to forward the calling number even if theprivacy indicator is on. In this manner, downstream services within thenetwork can use the calling number for call processing needs, yet stillkeep it private if the privacy indicator is on. Without the restoraladvantages of the present invention, out-of-network enhanced serviceproviders could never meet the needs of downstream call services becausethe enhanced service providers do not receive the private information.

The foregoing disclosure of embodiments of the present invention hasbeen presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodimentsdescribed herein will be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art inlight of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to bedefined only by the claims appended hereto, and by their equivalents.

1. A method for preventing private communication information fromexiting a network, comprising: determining that a communicationoriginally directed to an in-network called number is to be redirectedto an out-of-network entity; removing and storing the privatecommunication information from the communication after determining thatthe communication is to be redirected to the out-of-network entity;redirecting the communication to the out-of-network entity; retrievingthe stored private communication information when the communicationre-enters the network from the out-of-network entity; and restoring theretrieved stored private communication information to the communication.2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving the stored privatecommunication information includes locating the private communicationinformation using an associated transaction identification.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein restoring the retrieved stored privatecommunication information comprises inserting the retrieved storedprivate communication information into the communication.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the out-of-network entity provides an enhancedservice selected from a group comprising a call forwarding service, acall screen service, and an announcement service.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein the private communication information includes a callingnumber and a privacy indicator of the communication.
 6. A method forpreventing private communication information from exiting a network,comprising: sending a first query to a control module residing in thenetwork in response to receiving a communication that is to beredirected to an out-of-network entity, wherein the control moduledetermines that the communication is to redirected to the out-of-networkentity based on a called number, removes the private communicationinformation from the communication, and stores the removed privatecommunication information in response to the first query; sending asecond query to the control module when the communication re-enters thenetwork from the out-of-network entity, wherein the control moduleretrieves the stored private communication information and restores theretrieved stored private communicator information to the communicationin response to the second query.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein theout-of-network entity provides an enhanced service selected from a groupcomprising a call forwarding service, a call screen service, and anannouncement service.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein the privatecommunication information includes a calling number and a privacyindicator of the communication.